What was the worst college professor you had?

[Xist]

Regarding financial independence, what does that mean? I pay my own bills. Am I financially independent? Can I go on all of the vacations I want?

Vacations are irrelevant to me. I see my family regularly. Where else would I want to go and who else would I want to see?

Do I want to buy a new Civic? No, I just want to keep my cars in good shape. Where is that crankshaft pulley bolt?!

Do I, a forty year-old, enjoy living with my mother?

Enough, but I feel this is where I belong, helping my brother with autism, and our mother. At some point she will not be around anymore and I will really have problems.

If financial independence happens to you, you will probably mismanage it and lose it.

I have new clients, but doubt my current job will ever take me to twenty hours a week, which I need for various goals, and I have a new job, which is also inadequate for all of my needs, but together:



I get into grad school. I graduate grad school. I get a full-time job and can pay for the proper tools to properly maintain everything and to pay the professional when I shouldn't attempt something myself.

Is that financial independence?

I am sure that I would take regular vacations without incurring debt.

I want my family to enjoy things.

I mentioned winning publisher's clearinghouse. I hope that even if I received $5,000 a week I would keep working and trying to advance myself but if I apply this fall, get accepted for next fall, I would not graduate until 2023.

I am sure there are many paths to a comfortable living that are faster, like becoming a realtor and selling 23 houses a year.

Honestly, I do not know what else.

Kevin and Graham's answer to everything is real estate. They show that you can grow your wealth faster through real estate than through index funds.
I am sure a stock broker would disagree, but their plan, which I have been planning on sharing in a dedicated thread is:

1. Save up 3.5% for a house
2. Find a house that has been on the market for a while, that needs stuff like paint and landscaping. Let's say this house costs 10% less.
3. Get an 30-year FHA mortgage with a home-improvement loan for $10,000. Paint. Fix the landscaping.
4. Pay $1,249 in mortgage and put what you can in savings.
5. Get out of mortgage insurance as soon as you are eligible.
6. When you find the right second house, ideally a little bigger and nicer, put 3.5% down a 30-year mortgage, and rent out your first house.

I cannot find anything giving me a rough idea of how much of a profit margin you should be able to have, but as they say, every house is profitable at the right price.

Is 10% profit reasonable? Can you use this to purchase five houses in five years, with each slightly larger and nicer than the next?

I wrote out a scenario where you buy a $150,000 house, make 10% over expenses, use the rent money to pay the mortgage and save up for the down payment on a $165,000 house a few years later, an $181,500 house a couple years after that, etc., and after 11.5 years have a little over a million dollars in real estate bringing in $638.53.

That does not sound like much, but I did not calculate using any of your own money once you rent out the first house, so that would be over six hundred dollars a month based on an original investment of $5,250.

I just do not have any idea if that is high or low.

It is something I continue to investigate and if I were able to buy a house that required minimal maintenance, I would think a van would make more sense than my Accord.

[Xist]

I hope that everyone had a great day!

The final has three parts. Two are basically assignments and the third is a true-false and multiple-choice test. The on-line test part is only worth 25% of the final, but who knows when she will grade the rest or the six homework assignments?

The ungraded portion is worth 53% of the grade, but I need a 97% on the ungraded portion to earn a 90%.

I cannot find anything saying when grades will be posted.

Well, times to catch up on my notes. I only saw three clients so far this week, so that will be easy, but I am supposed to see three more tomorrow.

Allegedly I have sixteen clients.

I lost one on Tuesday. I think that family was my favorite. They said they were too busy.

[Xist]

Our instructor did not grade anything and then suddenly I had 100% for five homework assignments and two parts of the final.

I am supposed to believe that I did all of that with zero mistakes?

That does not sound like me at all!

[redpoint5]

We'll need a lot more sessions to unpack everything there...

Someone told me that financial independence is when the price of ordering food is irrelevant. That makes sense to me. Financially independent people take vacations because they can afford to not earn an income during that time. Certainly they have no credit card debt.

Women converse so that they are heard and understood, not to get to the logical and reasonable conclusion of something.

Our problems are always harder than others, because if we had others problems we'd have resolved them already... leaving only our problems. Some Russian saying says that problems avoid those that can solve them. Seems right.

My long-term plan is property ownership. There's losses involved in the transfer of ownership of things, so my preference is a long position rather than short (flipping). Expenses are tax deductible, interest is deductible, and inflation reduces the principal.

If there's something you're insanely interested in that has potential to pay your bills, that's the thing to do. People are good at the things they are most interested in. The problem is being interested in the things that earn a paycheck. Failing interest in something of value, it will take discipline to maintain gainful employment.

You've shared plenty of stories where people you interact with roughly say that you're "unfit", yet you leave the impression that you're entirely at a loss as to why they would think that. It could be that you encounter a large number of vicious people, or you're not listening and modifying your behavior in response to the cues people are giving you. As you're well aware, it's entirely possible for people to give social cues that would be easily recognized by the vast majority of people, and yet certain individuals would struggle to properly interpret those cues.

Might consider seeking 3rd party counsel to confront unresolved or unknown past issues and develop strategies to live well among people. As JBP says, if you don't fit well with the first person, see someone else. If you don't fit well wit that person, try a 3rd.